Pawns of War
by XiXIXiX
Summary: The world has changed. The surface of the earth has been ravaged by an ongoing war. A prophecy made fifteen years ago predicts that there shall be those who shall end this war, whether it be by saving the world, or destroying it. OC's being accepted.
1. Chapter 1

YO! whats up?

Anyway, new story. for you to read.

dont own pokemon, just my oc.

**_important note: OC Form is now in my profile in the story progress section. Also, read note at the bottom for more information._**

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><p>The world has changed.<p>

Pokemon have been partners with humans for centuries.

Battling.

Living.

**Thriving.**

It all changed on that fateful day.

On that day, war erupted. It was a war that had been brewing in secret for centuries; a war that could not be stopped.

The world became a battlefield.

A battlefield ruled by three opposing factions.

Those who want to change the world, T-Cross.

Those who want to keep it the same, the united forces.

And those who want to take the world for themselves, Team Chaos.

The peaceful and lively world we lived in became a land of the damned. We had no hope.

It was brother against brother. Sister against sister. Sibling against sibling.

The pokemon that were our partners were forced to take sides. Used as tools for destruction. A mere commodity for war.

Then, in the midst of all this, Arceus delivered his last revelation to the world.

"Wielders of Legends shall come to decide the fate of the world. Their battles, whether against each other, or together as one shall decide your fates. To save it, destroy it, or take it for themselves, their alliances will decide it all. The chosen will bear the marks of those they shall wield, and empower them beyond all imagining. They shall be the ones to use _**it **_to its fullest potential. You humans have destroyed yourselves, so let your own decide the outcome of this world. So mote it be."

Only a few heard this prophecy of things to come, and those who knew of it tried to silence the others, until there were only three who knew of it.

These three were Red of T-Cross, Blue of the united forces, and Giovanni of Team Chaos.

Fifteen years have passed since the day of the prophecy, and the war has escalated. The kings of the factions search for the children of prophecy, hoping to win the war using them as pawns in their large game of three way chess.

The three have found some of the chosen, but only so few. Others hide in fear of what might happen should they venture out. Yet others have taken matters into their own hands, and made names for themselves, not knowing what they hold inside them.

No one is winning.

No one is losing.

Everyone is dying.

The chess board is set.

And the game starts **now.**

**The world has changed.**

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><p>Anyway, there you have it! anything i should change, let me know!<p>

Also, i received a heads up on the OC thing. I would like all OC's to be sent by PM. Also, the oc form has been moved to my profile under my story progress part. This also works out for me, because i like to chat with the people who want to be part of my story, so please go to my profile and click the private message link at the top! (sorry for the inconvenience!)


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter is a bit dark in the beginning, but it gets way lighter after the second part.

hope you guys like the chapter. Although it is really gory in the beginning...

i do not own pokemon., only ocs

Also, ive been getting a lot of girls for my ocs. just wanted you to know i also want some guys...

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><p><em>It was raining heavily upon the canopy of the Eterna forest, and the sounds of battle could be heard.<em>

"_Dammit! We need backup!" Shouted a private into his communicator. A dog tag shone the words 'Kyle Anderson' hanging around his neck. His radio refused to respond and only static and rain were heard._

"_Home base! Can you read- Guaaaah!" Blood spewed out from the freshly opened wound, and the soldier dropped dead on the blood-stained leaves. _

"_It's Falkner! We need to run!" yelled a running soldier who was headed toward home base. " We'll be massacred if we stay here! Run guys! Run for your fuc-Guaaagh!' The scent of roasting flesh could be smelled as the soldier was burned to a crisp. _

_The soldier started to roll on the ground as the flames devoured his body, consuming his mind in pure and utter pain, when a distortion in space could be seen, and sliced the burning man in two._

"_I love my job. Burning things is so fun!" Said a man garbed in a black cloak. "Now, who is ready to be burned next?"_

_A clearer image could be seen now, as he appeared out of the mass of flames that consumed the ground in front of him. The flames bent around his black boots and cloak, as if he were some damned being of flame. The red shirt he wore seemed to merge with the flames, and his head appeared to be bandaged up, with only hints of his dark blue hair and his dark black eyes peeking out though them. He wielded some sort of tube like weapon, with masses of flames pouring out of it. On the shaft of the tube was a picture of a burning feather._

_The smell of kerosene wafted in the air as he drew closer to his target, the base up ahead. He suddenly stopped in his march when a brave group of soldiers with their pokemon out ambushed him. They were shaking in their boots, and held their weapons clumsily. The pokemon were in the same condition as their masters, and were currently shaking from fright._

"_S-stop right there Falkner! W-we won't have to hurt you if you just surrender!" The brave trooper that said this stood directly in front of him, with his houndoom at his side. He marched straight up to him, and then started laughing._

"_Wh-what's so f-funny?" The soldier asked. Suddenly he stopped laughing and glared at the soldier._

"_Foolish boy! In this world there is no surrender! It's kill or be killed! Survive or die!" He then marched back to the center of the circle and held his weapon up high._

"_Now it's time for a lesson you measly group of soldiers won't forget anytime soon! 'Cause you will all be dead! Now Skarmory…" The soldiers and their pokemon all lunged into him at the same moment. _

_Time froze for the instant he uttered those words. The battles taking place around their location seemed to blur out. Water droplets hung in the air, as if the entire forest waited in baited breath at the next command the man garbed in black uttered._

"…_Air cutter." A bust of air shot out in a crescent shape from the canopy above, and he pulled the trigger on his weapon while the blade up air soared above him. The crescent of invisible death caught fire, and spread out in a wide circle. The wave hit all the soldiers with devastating force, burning them and shredding them to pieces all at the same time. Blood and pieces of burning flesh rested under his boots, and he continued on._

_He marched all the way up to the base, passing enemies defeated by his troops, and destroyed the outer wall. Pieces of charred wood flew everywhere, and tiny firefly-like embers could be seen flying in every which way. A piece of wood fell in front of him with a large __Δ symbol on it. He stepped on it, purposely dirtying it with his boots before reaching the wall of the main compound._

_There he met a wall of ready soldiers, who were ready to deal with any assault the enemy may throw at them._

_They were all quickly dealt with. _

_He dodged all the attacks with grace only a veteran would have, and burned them all one by one. _

_Others who were lucky enough to dodge the flames where swiftly killed by the bandaged man's skarmory. _

_The smell of charred corpses filled the air, and the pyromaniac of a man used his weapon of demon's fire to set all the world ablaze._

_He did a graceful dance around his enemies, almost as if he were one with the wind himself. _

_Hack. Slash. Burn. Repeat. A chaotic whirlwind of death and fire, with the man garbed in black and red at the center._

_It continued like this until there was but one soldier left. _

_His stance was shaky, and his arms trembled in fear. The knife he held almost fell out of his hands as the man who killed all his comrades in such a gruesome manner drew closer. The older man's weapon spurted out flames in an on and off manner._

_Step. _

_Fire. _

_Step. _

_Fire._

**_Step._**

**_Fire._**

_The young soldier's hands grew sweaty from the heat and from fear, but they were absorbed by his gloves. Beads of water trailed down his face and made his red hair stick with his forehead. The fire shined in his gold eyes, which were squinting due to the intense heat. His clothes were sticking to his twig-like body, showing how little experience he had on the field._

_Suddenly, the man darted forward with speed that should have been impossible. He jumped up, and kicked the greenhorn soldier against the compound wall. A loud crack sounded through the air, and the wall now sported an impossibly large crack through it._

_While this was happening, more soldiers wielding what appeared to be smaller versions of the black clad man's weapon began to appear, and surround the now flaming and broken wall._

"_Now what do we have here? A newbie soldier on the battlefield." He laughed, with his head thrown back. The others laughed at this comment as well._

"_P-please! D-don't kill me!" The fallen soldier strangled out._

"_Hear that men? He doesn't want me to kill him!" The other's laughed hysterically, and chanted the words, "Burn! Burn! Burn!"_

"_Please! Don't! Please let me live!" The fallen soldier tried to get up, but found he could not, as every time he did, a burst of pain shot through his body. Tears of fear began to show themselves, but it was hard to tell with all the rain. He knew that if he brought his pokemon out they would be massacred, so he kept them safely tucked away on his belt._

"_Hmmm. He did say please. What should we do about this conundrum men?" The group of soldiers started to chant, "Game! Game! Game!" almost as if it were a routine process._

"_You hear that little maggot? They want to play a game with you!" The soldiers started to cheer loudly as he proceeded to pull out a rusty and jagged knife and cut the muscles in his legs, causing excruciating pain and large amount of blood to pool around his broken figure._

"_Aaaaarrggggghhh!" He screamed as the pain coursed through his body. He gasped as the knife tore through his legs._

"_Now everything is set! Here are your rules!" he held up his tube like weapon and pointed it toward the broken gates. "Crawl over there using just your hands! You have a time limit of one minute to reach that point! If you don't make it…" He simply pulled a trigger and fire started to pour out._

_He gathered up all his courage said, "I-I don't want to play your game!"_

_He laughed as he said his next words, "Time starts now!"_

_The soldier quickly toppled over, and reached out a gloved hand to grab the dirt in front of him. Grab. Pull. Grab. Pull. This was easier than he thought._

_A cry boomed from the sky, and the young soldier had the sense to roll to one side. Where he used to be, was a deep scar in the earth. It was deep enough that if he stuck his entire arm down there, he knew it would not even be close to the bottom._

_Realizing what had just occurred, the boy quickly decided to speed up in his crawl to the gate. He dodged the incoming strikes by listening to the sound that the skarmory made right before it attacked. _

"_30 seconds left greenhorn!" The man's twisted voice called out._

_A trail of crimson blood slowly dyed the wet ground red. Embers floated in the air, changing direction with the wind. His vision became blurry, but he continued on. The men that surrounded the compound where jeering at him with cries of death. _

_His crawl slowed, and he could feel the heat of the burning wood of the outer wall. He dodged another attack from the skarmory, but only barely this time. He lumbered forward, hoping to make it before he blacked out. _

_He crossed over body after body, reliving the memory of each death that was engraved in his psyche, and each body he passed gave him more strength to move on._

"_15 seconds left! You better hurry!" The cruelty could be heard emanating from his voice._

_He was starting to drift off into unconsciousness, but he held on, because he didn't want to die. _

_No one did._

_With his last amount of effort, he put on a quick burst of speed, and crossed the border, collapsing on the ash ridden dirt. His army issue shirt now stained with the blood of his former comrades and ash._

"_One second left! Congratulations greenhorn! You win the game!" He said in a voice that was filled with fake optimism._

"_Awwww…" The soldiers replied, as if a contestant on a game show had just lost._

"_I…I…Win….Live now…" He managed to squeeze out._

"_Oh? Who said anything about letting you live?" He said, almost as if he knew this was going to be the outcome._

"…_promise…" He whispered._

"_I never promised anything. I just said that we wanted to play a game with you! Now, as a reward for winning…" He kicked his face and grabbed him by his now soot covered hair._

"_Death." He fed him something, a small pill, before smashing his face into the ground. The about to be burned soldier felt his nose break, as well as blood start to drip out._

_The men then started to move into position, and held his hand and feet down while another member chained his ligaments to the soot covered earth._

"_You see, in this war, there is no such thing as mercy," He started off, "All that exists are death and destruction."_

_He circled around him and leaned down close to his face. _

"_This war changes people in way you would never imagine possible."_

_He started to take off the bandages around his face._

"_It corrupts them, changes their very essence. I will tell you a secret."_

_He stopped unwrapping for a second and whispered in his ear, "I used to not like to burn things."_

_He quickly raised his head up and continued unwrapping._

"_Look at me now! I am the incarnation of death! The avatar of destruction! And you know the best part?"_

_He had finished taking off his bandages and let them fall to the floor._

"_I love it!" _

_His face fully shown now. It was horribly warped and scarred. It was burned beyond belief, and one had to wonder how he was even able t talk without creating massive amounts of pain._

"_My face is what your soul would have been if you continued to fight. Horribly warped. Unrecognizable. Of course, out of my humble generosity, I am saving you from this fate." He said in a tone that actually seemed somewhat sorry. "You may think of me as a demon, but the truth is, on the battlefield, __**everyone **__is a demon."_

_This quickly reverted to his normal tone of insanity and he gave a little bit of advice, "You may want to brace yourself, as this may hurt…a lot!"_

_The men charged up their weapons, flames coming to life at the barrels. They slowly moved closer, the fire creating a dance of shadows across the droplets that were falling from the tops of the trees._

"_Now…Burn!" thunder roared and lightning flashed above. _

_Two flame troopers stepped forward, and started burning away his hands._

"_NO! STOAAAAAAAAH!" His gloves melted off, taking some of the skin with it. One they hand sufficiently burned his hands; they stared moving down his arms, until they reached his shoulders. He felt like passing out from the agony of it all, but something was stopping him._

"_You want to pass out, don't you?" thunder boomed again, and lightning struck closer this time. "I wanted to make sure that you would stay alive for this. I gave you a little pill. It will keep you awake for every agonizing second of this. Now, let me burn that pretty little face of yours off!"_

_He took his weapon, and aimed it at the young soldier's head. "Say your last goodbyes to this world, young one!"_

_He squeezed on the trigger._

_A flash of light occurred at that moment, blinding everyone._

_The roar of thunder followed soon after._

_The pain of one thousand needles was felt all over the young soldier's body. _

_An explosion occurred, and the private closed his eyes, and blacked out._

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><p>"Private." No response.<p>

"Private!" Still no response.

"PRIVATE! YOU BETTER WAKE UP THIS GOD DAMN SECOND OR I _WILL_ MAKE YOU DO SEWAGE DUTY TODAY!" The voice practically boomed in the young private's ear.

"SIR YES SIR!" The private said as he bolted up from his bunk. He got up so fast, that he accidentally hit the ceiling of his cell like room.

"OWW!" He yelled loudly, as he rubbed the spot where the roof had met his forehead.

"Perhaps that will teach you to WAKE UP ON TIME NEXT TIME PRIVATE AEREON!" The private could practically see the spit flying out of his mouth.

'I wish Amaya was still here. At least she would just poke me with one of her "sharp objects" to wake me up instead of making me deaf.'

"I know what you are thinking private, and you can NOT rely on that GIRL to WAKE YOU UP all the time. If you are in a battle situation, all you can rely on is yourself! NO ONE ELSE! YOU GOT THAT PRIVATE?" He screamed down the private's ear with a gruff voice.

"SIR YES SIR!" He replied hastily.

"SAY MY NAME!" He yelled.

"YES LIEUTENANT SPENCER SIR!"

"ONE MORE TIME, SERJ! I WANT THIS ENTIRE COMPOUND TO KNOW YOU WERE TARDY!" Boomed Lieutenant Spencer.

"YES LIEUTENANT JOHN SPENCER SIR!" Yelled Serj as loud as he could, which also made his voice somewhat coarse.

"GOOD! Now, since I am here, I might as well give you two announcements." He said in a normal tone of voice, which made Serj's ears cry with joy.

"FIRST! Amaya will be returning in a week's time should SHE NOT MESS ANYTHING UP!" Although Serj was neither sad nor happy that she was returning, he put up a front that he was at least somewhat happy.

"SECOND! We have a new recruit coming down from command in a few hours. DO NOT MESS THIS UP!" He yelled in his ear once more, making his ears cower in fear.

"BE READY IN FIVE MINUTES PRIVATE! ALSO, YOU DON'T GET BREAKFAST BECAUSE YOU WERE **LATE**!" He swore the walls rattled when he said the word 'late.'

He then strode out of the room, and slammed the door on the way out. This time, the walls did shake, as he saw some of the paint flake off when he slammed the door.

"Ugh. Why does he always seem so hard on me? I never did anything to him, did I?" He asked himself, as he headed to the bathroom.

'The best thing about Lambda base is definitely the fact that each room has its own bathroom!'

He quickly did his morning business, and then walked out and grabbed the clothes that sat on the table facing the window. He slid on his army regulation pants, army regulation boots, and army regulation T-shirt.

'The good thing about being in T-Cross is that they allow you to wear anything you want as long as you have the pants, the boots, and the T-shirt on!' He thought to himself happily.

He slid out a box from under the foot of his bed that contained all his other clothes as well as trinkets. In it, he found his headband lying on top, and put that on first.

'Mom…I wonder how she is doing without me?'

He brought out his coat that his mom had gotten for him a long time ago, and decided to put it back in the box. It was a warm humid summer morning, and the sun was rising above the horizon, so he wouldn't need it.

The only other pieces of cloth in the box were his gloves and his regular pants, which he couldn't wear sadly.

He decided to put on the gloves, and grab his dog tags and pokeballs.

"Come on out guys! It's time for another day on this god forsaken piece of metal."

After being released from their pokeballs, his pokemon were rather tired. His luxio seemed pretty pumped up though, as he always was in the morning.

"Morning guys." He yawned out. His pokemonanswered rather sleepily, too, with only a yawn from his froslass and rotom and a small cry of "lux" from his luxio, Volt.

"Spencer wants us to head down to the mess hall today. No breakfast either, so sorry Circuit, no food for you." No one on the team, including Serj, really ate breakfast except Circuit, his Rotom.

Circuit answered this with a sigh, as this usually happens, and he doesn't get to eat.

"Well, down to the mess hall we go, I guess."

The small group hurried down the flight of stairs, and arrived at themes hall, which was already bustling with recruits that were chatting and discussing things with each other.

They went over their usual table, the one all the way at the far north east corner of the room, and sat there. He suddenly heard a clatter next to him to see his best friend, Will, sit down with his lunch, except he seemed pretty depressed.

"Hey Will. What's going on?" Serj calmly asked, staring at the ceiling seeing if there was anything different about it today.

His very tall and silver hair friend replied in an overly dramatic fashion, "Oh~~, you would not understand my non-romantic friend. My troubles are none of your concern~~~!"

"mime~~, Mime mi mime mime mime mime mime. Mime mime mime mime~~~!" his Mime jr. added.

'Why did I have to be friends with the most over dramatic, over the top guy in this entire facility? '

"Really, tell me. I have nothing else to do today but to hear you out. Except maybe get yelled at by Lieutenant Spencer." Serj replied rather blandly.

"My dearest Amaya is gone~~! My love life is ruined~~! How will I ever tell her I love her~~?" He said in his usual over the top manner.

"Mime mime mime~~! Mime mime~~! Mime mime mime mime~~?"

'Why oh why is the most over the top fop here in love with the most sadistic person I know here? Really, Why?'

"Well, maybe she would love you if your personality did a complete one eighty and you stopped asking her out all the time! And why are you even trying to date someone? This is a military institution! And she is a D class soldier, unlike us F classes." Serj sardonically said.

"Life is short my friend! I must marry a girl who will accept me as who I am~~!"

"Mime mi mime! Mi mi mi mi mine mime mime mime~~!"

"… Oh! Look! Time to head to the training ground!" He tangentially said, pointing at the large clock near the north part of the room.

"Ah. So it is! On ward ho!"

"Mi. Mime mi. Mime mime mime!"

While Serj was talking to Will, Dia, Serj's froslass, had decided to knock out Circuit for some reason, as when Serj turned around, Circuit was fainted, and Dia huffing piles of steam, which Serj did not think was possible for an ice type.

He put Circuit in a pokeball, and sighed, as this was a usual occurrence. He and will went up to the roof, where the actual training ground was located, and they were greeted with the scent of the sea.

Lambda base used to be a very large prison built on the water in between sinnoh and Johto, until the war started. Then it was converted to a base for the war effort, as the first line of defense on the direct route between the two. The base itself is large enough that it could be counted as its own city, with working water, electricity, shops, and resources.

They walked over to a very large square building, which stretched two and a half miles from corner to corner.

"hey, Will, which do you think they are using today?"

Will seemed to have calmed down from his morning woes and replied in a calm demeanor, "I hope it is jungle. We rock at that place!"

"I'm kind of hoping for desert myself, but jungle will work fine."

They entered the front door, and were greeted by the sight of the other F class trainees.

"WELCOME STUDENTS! HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR LITTLE STROLL GETTING HERE!"

'CRAP! It just had to be Spencer today, didn't it?' thought both boys.

"WELCOME MAGGOTS TO YOUR OWN LITTLE PERSONAL HELL!" he yelled through his megaphone, which echoed across the very large room.

The room itself was so large and vast that it was nearly impossible to see from one end to the other. The roof was also so high that it was very hard to see. The entire area was a bland shade of gray, except for the portion the class was standing on, which was made out of steel.

"NOW, WE HAVE A NEW TRAINEE HERE IN F CLASS. IT IS HER FIRST EXERCISE SO MAKE SURE SHE KNOWS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE A TRAINING SESSION HERE ON LAMBDA BASE!"

'Was that the new recruit he was talking about earlier?' Serj thought.

"NOW I WANT YOU ALL TO WELCOME PRIVATE LUCIOUS. COME OUT HERE!"

She came out from behind the crowd and said, "Hello. My name is Katelyn Lucious. Nice to meet you all!"

She stood out among everyone else, as she her were different from everyone else's. She wore a pink and blue hat that covered her brown head of hair, which was tied into a braid. She was wearing some short jeans and some boots. She didn't really seem to belong here, with such an innocent look, except for that look in her eye which made you think she was up to something.

"YOU WILL BE TEAMED UP WITH PRIVATES AEREON AND GORHAM. NOW, I WANT YOU TWO TO TEACH HER THE ROPES. I WILL NOT TAKE THE TIME TO GO OVER RULES AND REGULATIONS, WHICH IS WHERE YOU COME IN!" His voice reverberated off the walls.

"TODAY WE ARE SIMULATING CAPTURE THE OBJECTIVE. TODAYS MAP IS JUNGLE. GOOD LUCK! YOU WILL NEED IT!"

Suddenly, the platform the students and the lieutenant were standing on rose, and kept rising until it reached the very top of the room, which was close to two point five miles high. Spencer pressed a button on the remote he was holding, and the whole floor slowly started to flip over.

"Man, I never get tired of seeing this!" Serj commented.

"Whoa," Said the new arrival. "That is cool!"

"I know, right? They still won't tell us how they do it. And they have a different map every session!" Will replied.

The floor reached a halt, and what now stood before them was a vast jungle, filled with its own pokemon and habitat.

The platform slowly lowered, until they were back at ground level.

"NOW THEN," Lieutenant Spencer bellowed through his megaphone, "ON YOUR MARK."

"Get ready to run." Serj whispered to Katelyn.

"Wha-"

"GET SET!"

"Do it!" he said a little louder.

"GO!" and then everyone set off in a run.

The game had begun.

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><p>tell me what you think! review!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3! yay! finally done! sorry for the lateness, i lost my falsh drive on monday and found it friday.

anyway, don't own pokemon, just oc's.

felt philosophical this chapter. :/ also, its more than twice the length of the previous chapter!

Note: only have half the oc's needed for this...

i have a status bar of when the next chapter is estimated to be done on my profile!

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><p><em>Today was a strange day for her.<em>

_It was a sunny day out. The sky had a golden ball of light shining high in the sky. There was a __cool breeze in the air that playfully tossed her brown hair about, nearly causing the oversized__ hat she wore to fly off. The grass and flowers underneath her tickled her feet through her sandals, causing her to laugh slightly as she moved about the area._

_Starly flew around in the air above, riding the honey scented currents of mid-summer wind. Combee darted about in the cloudless sky, searching for food for the queen of their hive._

_Budews and cherubi waddled around in the sweet scented flowers searching for a particular spot of warm sunshine to bask in. The Aipom were swinging in the nearby trees, searching for bits of sweet yellow honey to consume. Their never ending smiles glistened in the sunlight above, giving people who saw them a small feeling of warmth to see the small group of happy pokemon._

_She gleefully ran though the flowers, smiling as though she had just woken up on a Christmas morning._

"_Heeheehee!" She laughed in a high pitched tone, "Can't catch me!"_

_A small band of three pokemon chased after her, causing a small patch of flowers to bend in an oval shape wherever they went. The small distortion in the grass accelerated through the field of flowers, causing some of the flower petals to join the wind and join its journey west._

_Suddenly, the small mass of pokemon jumped in the air, revealing a budew, an aipom, and a cherubi all clumped together, as if they had all jumped at the same moment and had gotten tangled up in the fray. The tangled mess of pokemon clumsily flew through the air above the flowers, and was on a collision course with the young girl._

_At the very last second, the young girl veered off to the left, causing the tangled bunch to crash into the flowerbed below._

_She grabbed the lower eyelid of her left eye and pulled it down. Then she stuck out her tongue, which was dyed blue, hinting that she had eaten an Oran berry pie that her mom had made earlier._

"_Gonna haveta do better than that, guys! I'm not gonna give you any of the honey I brought with me 'till ya catch me!" She pulled out a small jar of delicious honey from a small pack at her waist and opened the lid. She waved it around a bit, letting the air saturate with the smell of honey while the bundle of pokemon struggled to pull themselves apart._

_She turned around and giggled to herself, and set off in a running motion while closing the open jar at the same time. _

_The now separated pokemon took a whiff of the scent that floated in the breeze, and drooled at the thought of chowing down on the delectable yellow substance. They quickly looked at each other, and nodded their heads in unison. The pokemon quickly set off again in search of the girl._

"_Hmmm… Wonder what's taking them so long?" The young girl wondered, before she spotted a rapidly approaching bulge in the grass._

_She pretended as if she was not paying attention, and just when it was close enough to get into jumping distance, she jumped to the left. The aipom from earlier jumped out of the lavender flowers and missed its target. It jumped again, and the girl swiftly avoided the leap, allowing the aipom to graze her so she could taunt it._

_For the next few seconds, she continued to do this, making taunting faces and poses while doing so._

" _Ai! Pom! Ai! Pom! Aipom!" The aipom stomped with rage as the girl kept avoiding his leaps. _

"_I told you! You're gonna haveta try harder!" She avoided another leap and was so concentrated on the aipom in front of her, she almost missed the small red pokemon hidden in a small patch of red tulips._

"_Cherubiiii!" The cherubi soared through the air, aiming to latch on to her intended target. The target in question saw this, however, and managed to dodge both._

"_Heehee! Nice try Blossom! But you still haveta try harder!" The two pokemon looked at each other, and smiled, with devious looks on both faces._

_They jumped at her from opposing angles, hoping to catch her off guard, but she swiftly maneuvered around them, or dodged to the left or right. _

_She took a backstep to dodge a swipe from blossom, and found herself backed into a large brown oak tree._

_The pokemon, not letting this chance go to waste, quickly lunged at her. She sidestepped, and found two, now fainted, pokemon next to her, toppled over each other on the ground._

"_Heeheehee! Looks like I win again!" She felt as though she forgot something, but did not act upon it, feeling sure she had won their little game._

"_Budeeeeew!" The budew from earlier flew down from his hiding spot on the end of a branch, causing leaves to explode like fireworks on a summer night._

"_Gyah!" the girl yelled in surprise, as the budew landed on top of her head, and shouted out a cry of victory._

"_budeeew!"_

"_Wha-? How'd you?" She started to wonder, but then she noticed that the two pokemon who were supposedly fainted were now suspiciously missing._

"_Aipom!"_

"_Cherubi!"_

_Both had appeared from behind the old oak, with large smiles on their faces because of their recent victory._

"_Aww. Looks like you guys tricked me, huh?" They nodded in reply, while budew puffed out his chest._

_She pinched budew's cheek, moving it in a back and forth fashion as if punishing the small pokemon for being naughty._

"_You're the mastermind behind this one, aren't ya, Buddy?" Buddy smiled when he heard his name, and climbed up to the top of her head, right on top of her pink and blue hat._

_She sighed and decided to lie down in the shade with her pokemon._

"_Well, since you guys won…" She took out the little jar of honey she had been goading them with._

"_I get to eat the honey!" She then proceeded to take a small spoon out of her pack and take a large spoonful out. She put it in her mouth before the tiny cluster of pokemon could do anything about it._

_When she noticed the sad looks of the group in front of her, she decided to stop playing around and took out a small blue blanket. She placed it on the ground, and took out some toast from a sealed bag that was also in her pack. She took some plates from a different compartment of her bag and placed them on the soft material now lying in front of her._

_Taking small amount of honey, she placed tiny dabs of it on the pieces of golden toast and put them on the paper plates. By this time, the bedew on her head had dropped of and was sitting on the blue, white, and gold island in the shade._

"_Here ya go! Time to eat!" The group perked up after that, and devoured the small meal in front of them. Aipom was the first to finish, finishing his in two bites. He then proceeded to climb to the top of the tree, and relax on a sturdy-looking branch._

"_Aaaipoooom…." He called out, having been content with the day's activities._

"_Yeesh. Ain't he something?" she asked her pokemon with a bright smile, who were currently nibbling away at the small piece of toast she gave them. They nodded in an off-hand manner, acknowledging that she had asked a question, but they were too busy stuffing their stomachs to really care. _

_A few minutes later, they had finished gaining the nutrients they needed, and had gone to join aipom in his afternoon siesta._

_She gathered up the blanket and the now empty bottle of honey, and carefully placed them in her bag. In the bag was also an egg, which seemed like it would hatch soon, as it was wiggling more that a gummy worm during an earthquake. _

_She glanced up at the pokemon resting up above her, recalling how she had met each._

_Pomfy was what she had called the aipom. He had stolen her hat one day after she had put some honey on a tree in hopes of seeing some pokemon. In fact, it was the same tree she was sitting under at that moment._

_Blossom she had met on a rainy day. She had gone out to play in the puddles while it rained, and she had just found the poor little cherubi shivering in the cold. She brought it home and cleaned her up, and since that day, she has played with her ever since._

_And Buddy. She had accidentally stepped on a house he was building for himself one day and a large chase began. Pomfy came to help, and the young budew was taken out, but not after nearly knocking out pomfy first. Since that day, a lot happened between the two, and they wound up becoming best friends. _

"_I wish I could take you guys with me, but I can't…" She whispered to no one in particular. The price of pokeballs had skyrocketed though the roof because of the war effort, and now average people like her could not carry their pokemon around with them. She had to leave them in the north part of the small town she lived in, Floroma town._

"_Ah well…" She was about to get up, but she noticed a man with a cane walking towards her. He had a prominent widow's peak that poked out under the Fedora hat he was wearing, and walked upright, as if he were in the military at one point. His graying hair was slicked back, and he wore a pitch black suit, like the kind her dad wore on formal occasions._

_As he got closer, she noticed he was looking for something, as his eyes were darting back and forth from location to location. She noticed his eyes lock onto her frame for a second, before he began to stride towards her._

_He walked right up to her, and she could smell a certain kind of cologne radiating of him, like the kind those rich men had when they came by the quaint little town once._

"_Do you mind if I sit here?" His sharp eyes bore into her skull, as if he could see the answer before she could even say it out loud._

"_Sure, I guess…" She replied uncertainly. She started to fiddle with the ribbon on her hat, hopping that he would simply ignore her in favor of something else._

_He placed the cane he carried on the bed of leaves and grass in front of him, and slowly sat down in the vacant spot next to her._

"_It has been such a long time since I have rested…" His deep voice seemed to echo in the open space, and she could tell he wanted her to reply to the statement._

"_What were you doing that you can't have time to rest?" Her voice quivered as his oppressive presence weighed her down._

"_Oh, you know. A little traveling here, a few deals there…" _

"_So you're in the war?" She asked hesitantly._

"…_Yes. You could say that." He thought about his answer for a bit, rolling it around in his mouth before he spit out a question. "Tell me, which one do you support?"_

"_What do you mean by that mister?" It was an honest question that escaped her lips before she had time to think about what to say._

"_Oh. The way I phrased that was a little vague, was it not?" He said in a mirthful tone. "I'm talking about the sides of the war that is currently going on."_

_She was a little surprised at his question, as it was not the kind of question you would ask a stranger, but she replied with an honest answer none the less. "T-Cross of course!"_

"_T-Cross… Tell me, why T-Cross?" She felt the oppressive feeling again, examining her soul in it's firm hands._

"_Ummm…. I guess…. They're the good guys!" She looked up at the pokemon still resting above her, smiling as she saw them._

"_Really? Well, why are they the good guys?"_

_Contemplating on her answer for a bit, she said, "Daddy says that T-Cross are the good guys 'cause the stand for truth, justice, and all that is right!" She smiled fondly as she recalled the memory with that her father._

"_Oh? And how is anything they do justice?" The question was one she had never really thought about, but it was one which she could easily answer._

"_They fight against Team chaos, who're rotten to the core!" She said that with as much enthusiasm about the subject as she could._

_He let out a brief sigh, before he asked yet another question. "What did they do to make them so rotten?"_

_A combee flew by, leaving the brief scent of honey in the air as she replied. "They kill people."_

_He seemed to laugh a little. "This is war! Of course people are going to die! Think things through before you are going to answer!"_

_She thought it over for a few more seconds, and came up with a blank. "I…don't know why. I just know that T-Cross are the good guys. Daddy tells me that they all used to be evil but…"_

"_Well, let me ask you something simpler. Do you know where Team Chaos's main bases are?"_

_She smiled and answered without a second thought. "Kanto and Johto. Everyone knows that one!"_

"_Now, do you think the people who live there are happy or sad that they are there?"_

"_Well, sad I think. They haveta be in the same region as those people…" She thought about how she would feel if she lived there when she gave her reply._

"_Ah. That is where you are wrong."_

"_Wha-?" _

"_You see, people there are actually very content with their lives. Team Chaos protects the people of those regions from the likes of T-Cross and the United Forces. They also provide things like shelter, food, protection, money, government, and stability to the two regions. In return, people join their army; they also provide them with weapons, and generally do things to help Team Chaos."_

"_But… aren't they evil?" She asked curiously._

_He let out a long sigh, and started into another explanation. "Think of it this way. Imagine you had a person you hated with all you heart. For the sake of this conversation, we shall name this person Green."_

_She nodded in response._

"_Now, Green did something, and you hate him now for it, so you struck back. A large fight ensued, and you wound up knocking each other out. From then on, whenever you saw each other, you had a fight."_

_She was a bit puzzled as to what this had to do with their previous conversation, but she stayed quiet and continued to listen. _

"_Well, now let us say you both used to be friends, and had another friend with the two of you who used to play with both of you all the time. This friend of yours sees both of you fighting and wants you both to stop, but nothing your friend does can get through to either of you, so this person enters the fray as well. We shall call this person yellow. Are you still with me?"_

_She nodded slowly, after she was sure she had all the information correct._

"_So now all three of them are fighting, with each having their own reasons to fight. Now, which one of them is correct, in his or her reason to participate in the brawl?" She felt his gaze on her, studying her every action as she tried to come up with the solution._

"_Ummm… I think it would be Yellow, wouldn't it? I mean, Yellow is trying to stop us from fighting and be friends again." She felt sure of her answer, but somehow, she felt that it was the wrong one as he watched the disappointment in his gaze._

"_Ah. I thought you would say that. The truth is, Yellow is wrong because he joined the fight instead of keeping to peace keeping tactics."_

_She felt befuddled because his answer. "But you said that everything Yellow did couldn't stop the other two."_

_He changed the position he was sitting in, and stretched for a second before answering. "Yes, I did say that. But in actuality, Yellow could have kept trying to keep the two apart, and maybe lessen the violence. Just because Yellow could not completely stop it, does not mean that Yellow had to join the fight to return things to the way they were before."_

"_Then is the right one me? I mean, if I was in that situation, and my friend really did do something that bad, then I think it would be a good idea to fight back." She answered in an innocent voice._

_The sun that was high in the sky earlier was now falling slowly, like a feather in the wind._

"_No, you are not the correct one either. He never fought you, only did something very bad. You started the fight, and you kept fighting him. There is no excuse when you are the one that throws the first punch." He gazed at the horizon with his eyes shining with nostalgia._

"_Then is it Green?"_

_He chuckled again, and he dropped his head down, making his eyes shadowed because of his hat. "No. Green was the reason for the fighting in the first place, so his reason to fight is incorrect as well."_

"_But… then… is no one correct?" She has a confused look on her face._

_He looked up, with a smile on his face. "Yes and no. They are in fact, all correct and not correct at the same time."_

_She tilted her head in confusion. "Mister, you just said that they were all wrong in their reasons to fight, so how are they all correct as well?"_

"_To understand that, you need to understand war at it's core. To begin a war is a tragic sin, because there are simply no real reasons to start it. A reason to fight in a war is something completely different though."_

_She was even more confused now. "Sir, you were talking about fighting a few minutes ago, and now you are talking about war. Why do you keep getting so off topic?"_

_He simply laughed. "I am getting there. Now, as I was saying, reasons for starting a war and the reason for fighting in one are completely different. Let us apply this logic to the situation above. Tell me, what was the reason to start the fight?"_

_Things seemed a little clearer now, and she started to connect the dots in her head. "I know! Green did something bad to me, right?"_

"_Yes. That is correct. Now, what was his reason to continue fighting?"_

"_uhhh… Green didn't want to be beaten by me?" She asked playfully._

_He seemed to laugh as well, before answering. "Yes, pride and honor could have been Green's reasons for fighting. He could also have been fighting to show you that he was right, or simply for the sake of fighting."_

"_So my reason for fighting would be to show green he was wrong?" She told him hopefully._

"_Yes, you could look at it like that." His eyes shined as he spoke._

"_And Yellow's is to stop the others, right?" She was sure of herself in her answer._

"_Yes, yellow's is to promote peace." He spoke in a hushed tone. "Now, can you apply what I just told you to the current war?" _

_She took all the information she gathered so far, and applied it to the question he had just asked. "T-Cross's reason for fighting is to change the world. The United Forces is to return things to the way they were. And team Chaos's is…"_

"_Yes?"_

"_To take the world for themselves?" She asked the much older man._

"_Yes! Perfect! Now, why would people see that goal as evil?" He had this shine in his eyes that made him look like he had just found a large wad of money in the street._

"_Because… then people wouldn't be able to be free." She answered in a soft voice. "They would all be ordered to do stuff and make the people into slaves and-"_

_The man held up his hand to silence her before he started to speak. "And that is the reason people see Team Chaos as evil. You see, with conquering the world through this war, people seem to think conquer equates to dictatorship. That is not true."_

"_But they're evil and stuff!" She whined._

"_No, they are not. When you see their goal of conquering the world, you see that as evil, as conquering usually means loss of freedom."_

"_Yeah, I know that!" She interjected._

"_But," He continued, "Team Chaos's goal is to completely revamp the system. They wish to make a world where people can be free and make their own choices, with no set system holding them back, while also uniting all the regions under one rule."_

"_When you put it that way, it doesn't sound so bad…" Her feelings about Team Chaos felt as if they were being shredded by a blender and put back together._

"_T-Cross's main goal is to make a government run by the people, and puts the people in power. That is why so many people support it, because their goal appeals to the people."_

"_So that is why daddy is so supportive of it?" She felt a light bulb go off in her brain._

"_Yes, that would be why he is so supportive of T-Cross. He wants the people to have a say in things, instead of simply tools."_

"_So what do the United Forces want to do?" _

_He laughed again. "Such a smart and intuitive girl you are. Well, they wish to return things back to the way things were."_

"_Back?"_

"_Yes, back. Back to the time when life was simple and Pokémon trainers roamed the land, seeking to be the very best; where life was all about the challenge, and the struggle to complete an impossible mission." He seemed to gain a nostalgic look in his eyes again, as if he were dreaming of a time before she was born._

_He quickly lost that look, and turned to face her. "Now, back to the original question. Which side do you support?"_

_She thought that question over again, before she said her answer. "I... don't know..."_

"_Oh? Would you mind telling me why this is your choice?"_

_She thought of what she could possibly say to that question, before giving her answer. "I like all of them. I really can't choose just one..." _

"_Hmmm… Why can you not choose?" _

"_Because…I don't know!" She had a frustrated look on her face. _

"_And why don't you know?"_

"_Mister, please, no more questions…" She was feeling very tired of all the questions now, and the gentle caress from the heat of the sun was waning._

"_It is not a hard question if you know the answer." He said this as if the answer was the simplest thing to say in the entire world._

"_I don't know the answer to that!"_

"…_So it appears you are not ready yet." He said this in a kind of sigh, like he was disappointed with her._

"_Wha-?" She was very confused at his statement._

"_I am disappointed, young girl. I thought I could persuade you, but alas, I could not."_

"_What are you talking about?" She was thoroughly confused at this point._

"_I guess I should answer your question, yes? Well, I am from Team Chaos."_

"_What? You aren't supposed to be here! You can't! It's against the rules!" She was astonished at his sudden admission to being part of that group. "Why are you here?"_

"_For you, of course." He said that as if that statement would suddenly make everything clear._

"_What do I haveta do with anything?" She asked in an exasperated voice._

"_You would not know, would you?" He seemed to laugh at his own inside joke. "Well, I suppose that is how it should be, as everyone who knows it is dead or keeping it secret…"_

"_What're you talking about?" She felt the need to know, as whatever he was talking about concerned her._

_He put his withered hand on her head, and trailed it down her bangs. He then quickly strangled the lock of hair, and pulled it up, revealing a flower shaped mark on the right side of her forehead, no larger than a dime._

"_This mark here… Do you know what it is?" He asked her._

"_She quickly pulled off his hand from her hair and patted it down, making sure that none of the hair came off. "Mommy says it a birthmark. I'm her little flower girl…"_

_He chuckled darkly. "It is much more than that. So much more…"_

_He murmured something under his breath, as if he were trying to hastily remember something he heard long ago._

"_Really? What?" She was curious about what was so special about it._

"_You are not ready to know. You are too young. Too innocent for war…" He steadily got up and brushed off his pants._

"_I am leaving now. Report me to the authorities if you wish." He grabbed his cane in a firm grip and started walking off. "Who knows what damage I could do if I stay here."_

_The young girl hastily got up and chased after him. "Mister! Tell me! Please!"_

_He simply kept walking off into the distance. _

"_I didn't even get your name!"_

"_Goodbye."_

_Suddenly, a very large pokemon swooped down, and he disappeared off into the distance._

_She was confused and enlightened at the same time. Some of the questions she didn't know she had had been answered, but there were still so many questions left unanswered._

_She briefly patted the spot were the flower shaped mark was, and pulled down her oversized hat to cover it. She noticed that the man had disappeared now, and decided to go back to the tree where her Pokémon friends slept._

_She rapped on the wood and waited for one of her Pokémon to wake up. _

"_Budeewwww?" He answered sleepily._

"_Hey Buddy. I'm goin' to go home now. Can you tell the other's that when they wake up?" _

"_Budeeewwww…." Buddy was rather sleepy when he woke up, but obliged none the less._

"_Well, I'll see ya tomorrow then! I'm going home!" She started to walk away, but quickly turned around to view the scenery._

_She headed toward the station to report the strange man, as she was a good samaritan, but she stopped on her way there. He was a rather nice man, in her opinion, and her talk with him earlier planted the seed of doubt in her skull. She rounded about, and headed off home._

_She opened the door to her house and entered, simply taking off her sandals and throwing them on the ground, and put her hat on the table on the way to her room._

"_Hello my little flower girl! You had fun today?" The voice of her mother rang through the kitchen._

"_Yeah… I had plenty of fun!" Her voice sounded enthusiastic, but it carried a hollow tone to it._

"…_Sweety, if there is anything wrong, you can tell me or your father. We won't hurt you." She quickly gazed in to the brown pools of her mother's eyes, so much like her own._

"_It's nothing…" She turned her gaze to the floor._

"…_If there is anything that is wrong, then you can always tell me. I'll always be here for you." She had a worried look on her face._

"_It's Fine! I'm okay! Don't worry. I'm fine…" She slowly walked away._

_She went to bed early with strange thoughts marching through her brain and heading down into her stomach._

_She had a foreboding feeling in her gut, but brushed it off in favor of sleep. _

_She quickly fell asleep, unknowing of tomorrow and what it held in store for her…_

* * *

><p>"Oy! Up and at um!" A distant voice just outside her range called to her.<p>

Her eyes fluttered open and she pulled her head up. Her head was leaning against a steel wall and she was extremely uncomfortable.

"blarg… Is it morning already?" She asked sleepily. She started to stretch where she was sitting. The X shaped belt that rapped around her restricted her movement, but it allowed enough movement to at least get some blood flow to her legs and head.

"It has been morning for a while. It's around 10 actually." The person who stood in front of her was a female soldier around 12 years of age. She carried her helmet to her side and had something of a permanent scowl on her face, which looked very funny because of how babyish it looked. Her dog tag glinted from the open hatch on the side, and she could make out the name 'Sarah Collins'.

"So… Sarah. Where am I again?" She was confused. She had just woken up on what looked like a helicopter, but she couldn't remember how she had gotten in here.

"Lambda base. I was supposed to transfer some recruits from Alpha to Beta, but apparently I also had to transfer you to lambda. An order from superiors." She recalled getting a transfer to Lambda now. "You better thank me. I had to bring you all the way to the middle of no where."

She was surprised by the statement, before she realized that what she said was true.

'Lambda base is in the middle of the ocean after all.'

"Uhhh. Well… thank you, mam." She replied.

"Chsh. Newbies. All the same." She had a look on her face that screamed superiority. "Off you go. I don't have time to deal with you."

'What? How can she say that when she looks younger than me? Ah well. I'll ignore it… for now…'

She unbuckled her belt and got up. Now that she stood at full length, she saw that Sarah had a very short stature. She was only as tall as where her eyes were.

'Heehehe. She is really short.' She laughed a little as she thought this.

"You laughing at something?" She seemed a little ticked off. Scratch that, she was very ticked off. The anger on her face just made her look sillier, and now the transferred soldier burst out laughing.

"HaahaaHaHeeHeeHe… You're hilarious. What are you? 11? 12? Seriously! How are you even in this army?" She said this and continued to laugh. She did not notice the look of rage on the short pilot.

"I'M 20 YOU DUMBASS! NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HELICOPTER!" She grabbed the recruit and tossed her out of the helicopter. She landed with a hard thud on the pavement.

"Owwwww. That hurt meanie!" Then she noticed that she had forgotten her stuff. "Hey! What about my-!" Thunk. A large tan bag came flying out of the helicopter and hit her smack dab on the forehead.

"I'll get you for this!" She reached into her bag and pulled out a battered pink and blue hat. She placed it on her head to keep the sun out of her eyes and sat down on the now empty lot. She wondered where to go now.

"Oh, Katelyn. Where do you go now?" She spoke out loud to no one in particular. Now that most of her morning sleepiness had worn off, she remembered that her mentor had packed some stuff into her bag.

She reached inside, pulling out a few rocks that she kept with her, and pulled out a note.

'Let's see… 'Go Down And Find Lieutenant Spencer. He Will Show You Around'. Well, that's helpful. How do I find him?'

She looked around her and saw a door to her left. There were actually several of them, so she decided to go to the one closest to her. It wasn't too far, so she walked to it. The metal door swung open and she entered. She saw a stair case leading down and followed it. It was cool inside, as compared to the humidity outside. She stepped into the rather well lit hallway at the end of the stairs and continued to move forward.

She reached the end of the hall, and wound up at a fork.

'Now which way do I go?' She played a quick game of eany meany miny mo, and headed left. She reached another fork and headed left again. This continued for a while before she was sure she was lost.

'Okay. Do not panic. That's what he said to do in situations like this. Do not panic.'

She then heard footsteps coming from the right passage and headed that way, as she had yet to se a single form of human life in this place since she had gotten here.

She ran down the hall, her boots clashing against the floor, until she accidentally crashed into the person she had heard. The person was coming around the corner of the hall, and she did not have enough time to stop.

"Guhhh" she heard a male voice. She heard something akin to something heavy fall and two ticks, like two tacks fell to the floor.

"Owwwww. Sorry. I sort of crashed into you and…" She got up and locked eyes with the stranger. His eyes were a shade of sky blue, and had a look that seemed like he had lost everything. Then she noticed he had a nasty scar running down his left eye. She quickly turned away and started to stare at the wall.

"You were saying?" His calm voice reminded her of a deep bell. He bent down a picked up a book and what looked to be two ear buds. He Slipped the two items into the depths of his jacket, and rose to full height. Now that she had a better look at him, she fond him kind of appealing. He had on a jacket made out of a slippery material and a green shirt which stood out in the center of his jacket. He wore some blue jeans, and some sneakers.

'He must be new too. But just in case I'm wrong…'

"Ummm…. I was wondering… do you know a guy named Lieutenant Spencer? I need to find him."

He contemplated before replying. "I was headed for the roof, but I guess I can take you to him."

"Oh thank you! I was kind of lost for a second…" She felt relieved.

"Actually, it's designed so that no matter which way you took, you would have wound up in the same place." He answered.

"Really? I feel stupid now… But why?" She was curious.

"You came from the east wing right?" She nodded her head. All she did was go left, after all. "Well, you saw several doors there, right? Those are for incoming troops to reach the main hall with out crashing into each other. Follow me so far?"

She nodded her head and asked another question "Wait, does that mean that there is a west wing?"

"Yes, but that one is for planes. The one you came from is for helicopters." A look of understanding dawned on her face.

"Oh. That makes sense. So, Can you tell me where Lieutenant Spencer is now?"

"Well, considering it's around ten or so… and today is that time of the year…" His eyes flicked up to the corner of his face. "He should be getting ready for a simulation in the Black Box."

Oh. I've heard about that place up in Alpha base…" She recalled hearing it from her mentor as a place all recruits go to at least once in their life time. "Where is the Black Box located?"

"I'll show you when we reach the room I talked about up ahead."

They walked steadily ahead. The sound of their boots bounced off the walls and the scent of the sea drafted into the halls the farther they went. Finally, they reached a room that was as large as a wailord. The roof was opened up, and the breeze was blowing in rather nicely. There were five different paths that opened up from the room.

"Okay. Now that we are here, you should head that way." He pointed to the one directly in front of him. "Just keep heading straight, and you'll reach your destination. Once you see it, you will know which building it is."

She nodded and put on a devious smile. "Well, won't you be a gentleman and escort me to the place?" She drew closer to him, and invaded his personal space.

"I'm sorry, but I have my own business to attend to." He took out from his pocket what appeared to be a dog tag, but the sun glinted off it too much to actually see what was on it. "I will take my leave now." He started in his walk over to the left most path.

'Well, that was rude of him. I guess I'll just pay him back later.' She put on a grin as large as a banana.

She began to walk all the way to the north end of the room, but suddenly realized something important she forgot to ask him.

'Wait! I forgot to ask his name!' She turned around and made a start for the way he was headed, but he had already disappeared.

'Dammit!' her face drooped in disappointment. 'I'll find him later. Now, which way was Black Box again?'

As soon as she found her bearings, she marched on, in hopes that this was the correct way, and not some sort of hoax played by the strange boy from earlier.

She continued to walk forward, ignoring all the other passages the sunk in to the ground or rose to higher places.

She eventually reached a passage that took her back up to the surface and saw Black Box in the distance.

'Holy… That thing is huge!'

She saw a very large building shooting straight up into the air and stretched as far as the eye could see. It looked like a large black wall had risen in front of her to block her path.

She saw some other recruits heading towards it in the distance, and saw them disappear into the large building.

I guess that's what he meant by "can't miss it".'

She started to walk toward the large building, moving through several bridges and cause ways along the way.

'I wonder how they managed to keep that thing there without it collapsing on itself…'

She finally made it to the small door on the side of the behemoth and stopped.

'This is it… no turning back now.'

She entered.

As soon as she passed through, she felt like she had been dunked in water. She suddenly felt lighter, and realized her bag had disappeared. She realized what it was immediately and scowled.

'I hate material emancipation gradients. They always take all my stuff away and my Pokémon too!'

She walked out of the small passageway that she had found herself in and walked onto a large metal floor.

The inside was not as impressive as the outside. It was a bland shade of gray, like cement.

"YOU MUST BE THE NEW RECRUIT FORM ALPHA!" A loud voice shouted in her ear. She jumped at the loud noise, and the large space just made it echo, making it worse.

"EEEEK!" She turned to her right after the scare fest was over. Next to her was a large man that towered over her. His muscles seemed to ripple with every movement he took, and he always seemed tensed.

She made eye contact with his pitch black eyes, and felt herself being scrutinized.

"Well, well, well. If I'm not mistaken, it's a little girly girl." That statement made her blood boil under her skin. "TRY NOT TO CRY WHEN I CRUSH YOUR SOUL TODAY! NOW, AS YOU MAY HAVE GUEESED, I AM LIEUTENANT SPENCER! I WILL SEE YOU LATER PRIVATE!" He then walked over to where he was standing earlier and took out a megaphone.

'THIS IS LIEUTENANT SPENCER?' She thought.

"15 MINUTES UNTIL THE EXERCIZE COMMENSES!"

'No need to yell dammit! I have a headache already from your voice!'

She decided to go talk to the other recruits and see what was going on here today. She walked to the nearest recruit and introduced herself.

"Hello. My name is Katelyn. Yours?" She asked the other girl who was simply standing in place and waiting.

"…." She did not seem to want to talk.

"Hello?" She waved her hand in front of her face to see if she could get a reaction. The other girl caught her hand in mid swing.

"Do not do that. I dislike annoying people." She continued to ignore her and stare off into space.

"That's rude! I just wanted to know your name!" She huffed out.

"…Ayla. Now stop bothering me. I like my quiet." She turned around and walked away.

She followed after her, but she continued to avoid and ignore her.

"Can you please stop following me? I do not appreciate your company."

"Awww. Come on! Tell me about yourself! I wanna know!"

The older girl stopped and let out a sigh. "If I answer your questions, will you please leave me alone?"

"Sure!" she replied cheerily.

She relaxed her arms a bit and calmed down. "So… What do you want to know?"

"What is your specialty?"

The older girl seemed confused. "Specialty?"

"I mean, are you close, mid, or long ranged fighter?"

"…Pretty tactical of you. Close."

Satisfied with that answer, she moved on to the next question. "What's your area of experitise?"

"… Computers." She seemed reluctant to release the information.

"What is the exercise Spencer keeps talking about?"

She thought about this for a second before she said her answer. "It's different every time, but it's usually a simulation of a field operation. Basic stuff."

"Anything else that's usually the same?"

"Well, we usually go in teams of three that were assigned to us we first arrived at Lambda base."

"Wha-"She was interrupted by Lieutenant Spencer's megaphone.

"WELCOME STUDENTS! HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR LITTLE STROLL GETTING HERE!"

She noticed that while she was talking to Ayla, more students started to arrive.

'Those last two that just came in are probably the last of them.'

"WELCOME MAGGOTS TO YOUR OWN LITTLE PERSONAL HELL!" She was starting to dislike him more and more.

"NOW, WE HAVE A NEW TRAINEE HERE IN F CLASS. IT IS HER FIRST EXERCISE SO MAKE SURE SHE KNOWS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE A TRAINING SESSION HERE ON LAMBDA BASE!" She could feel the sarcasm dripping off his words

"NOW I WANT YOU ALL TO WELCOME PRIVATE LUCIOUS. COME OUT HERE!"

'Oh. That's me.' She realized.

"Hello. My name is Katelyn Lucious. Nice to meet you all!" She said with enough strength to reach everyone.

"YOU WILL BE TEAMED UP WITH PRIVATES AEREON AND GORHAM." He pointed over to where the last two people who had entered the building were. "NOW, I WANT YOU TWO TO TEACH HER THE ROPES. I WILL NOT TAKE THE TIME TO GO OVER RULES AND REGULATIONS, WHICH IS WHERE YOU COME IN!"

'Great… I'm stuck with the people who don't bother to be punctual. Might as well make a good first impression.'

She wanted to walk forward towards her new teammates, but Spencer started to 'talk' again.

"TODAY WE ARE SIMULATING CAPTURE THE OBJECTIVE. TODAYS MAP IS JUNGLE. GOOD LUCK! YOU WILL NEED IT!"

The metal panel they were all standing on began to rise, and they were taken up to the roof. A deep humming noise echoed throughout the chamber as it rose.

'Okay… Why do we need to go up?'

She decided while it was rising, she would go over and walk to her new group, but once again, when she was nearly there, the panel stopped moving and she heard a deep groaning sound, like a wailord's cry.

What she saw astounded her.

"Man, I never get tired of seeing this!" She heard the red haired private say.

"Whoa. That is cool!" She said in amazement.

The entire floor was flipping over, and under it, was a jungle. She could here the faint cries of Pokémon coming from the vast green space and wondered how this could be possible.

"I know, right?" Said his silver haired friend. "They still won't tell us how they do it. And they have a different map every session!"

Now she was amazed. She wondered how this was possible when she knew from her mentor that access to this kind of technology was out of T-Cross's reach.

The platform lowered, and continued to lower until it grinded to a halt.

"NOW THEN, ON YOUR MARK."

She heard a faint whisper from the red head but could not quiet make out what he said.

"Wha-?"

"GET SET!"

"Do it!" She heard him say a little louder. He was now leaned over like he was ready to run so she followed his example.

"GO!"

Everyone shot off like a firework. She followed the other two in her new group, who were headed to the right, and hoped they knew what they were doing.

The faint swish of branches could be heard as they ran through the now humid air in the indoor jungle. They ran for a long time, before the red head put his hand up and the silver haired person stopped. She followed their example and stopped as well. They had stopped near the wall of the place, which meant they had run over a mile.

They all sat down for a bit, and then started to walk around as to keep them from cramping in their legs later. Then Serj put up his hand, indicating he was going to speak.

She heard him steady his breath before he started talking. "Okay, I think we're far enough from lieutenant douche bag and the others. Now, let's introduce ourselves." He held out his hand in a welcoming manner. "My name is Serj Aereon. Welcome to group L-F-X11, Katelyn."

She shook his hand hesitantly. The way he walked just seemed to put her off, like he knew more than her."Yeah. Alright. Now who is Silver Hair over their, smart one?"

"I am the one, the only, the magnificent, the epic, the awesome, the cool, the-" Serj smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ayeeee! Sorry!" He turned to Serj who had a smirk on his face. "My name is Will Gorham~~ I am the silver arrow of the team~~!"

She liked him already. He was fun to be around, and his sing song voice was just fun to listen to. "Well I'm Katelyn. Nice to meet you Will!"

"See Serj? All the fair maidens flock to me~~!" Serj simply laughed a bit before becoming serious.

"Okay then," He took something out of his pocket that looked like a watch. "Lieutenant Spencer sent us on a capture the objective." He fiddled with his watch for a bit.

"He also turned on the gradient today, meaning that we are going naked on this." He scowled in distaste.

"Katelyn, what is your range specialty?" He asked her.

"Mid range." She replied.

"Choice of weapon?" He fiddled with the watch a bit more.

"Slingshot." She said proudly.

Serj stopped what he was doing and started to laugh. "Hahahaha! A slingshot? That's hilarious! Who uses a slingshot on the battlefield?"

He continued to laugh. She wacked him on the back of the head, but he continued to laugh.

"Hahaha! Anyway…. Serious business now." He continued to fiddle with his watch before he stopped.

"HA! Got the frequency I needed. Will, can you remember when this goes off?" Katelyn could here a faint buzzing coming from the watch now, followed by a pinging noise. "You know I have kind of a bad memory…"

"Yes my friend! I couldn't forget it even if I wanted too!" He said with gusto.

"Uh… What does he mean by that?" Katelyn asked.

"I have a perfect memory~~!" Will replied for Serj.

"He does. Never forgets a thing." He took his watch and held it up to Will's ear. "You got it?"

"Yes. I have it." He replied in a tone that was ever more so serious than his previous one.

Katelyn realized something was wrong with this picture. "Wait… How did you get that watch past the gradient though?"

He seemed surprised, but replied. "I received it from my old teammate, Amaya. She was always able to smuggle stuff across the stupid thing, and no, I don't know how she did it. She's In D-Class now, so…" She could here will cry 'Amaya!' in the background.

"What's his problem?" She pointed over to Will.

"Oh. He has a crush on her. She's on assignment so he lamenting over her absence." He sighed.

"My dearest Amaya~~! I miss you~~!" He was crying in the corner.

"Will! Get serious here! Now, how many seconds was it before the ping?" Will stood up and put on a serious look on his face.

"Ten seconds approximately, followed by another one half a second after." He said in a formal tone.

"A kilometer… Damn! This is going to take forever…"

"Okay, I'm confused. What is going on?" Katelyn asked.

Serj scrunched his eyes together before realizing he forgot to tell her how it worked. "Oh. Right. Well, here is how it works. This watch sends out a signal that will travel for a certain amount of time. Of course, i have to tune to a certain frequency first to get it working." He pointed at his watch for emphasis. "When it reaches a metallic object, it bounces off of the object, and sends a signal back. One second for every one hundred meters. Get it?"

"And why would you need something like that? What's the point?" She could see how it could be used in the field, but not here, where all the equipment had been taken from them.

"Well, this is a capture the objective, so he hid our objective somewhere. The objective is usually hidden in a base somewhere in this place, but the base always changes location, so we don't memorize it and head toward it every time." He paused to let the information sink in. "Now, the base is usually guarded be two D-classes, perhaps a C-Class if the instructor is feeling really sadistic. To take them on, we need weapons."

"But we our weapons were taken from us!" She complained.

"Ah! But that is where this comes in!" He pointed at the watch again. "The instructor has to leave a few weapons lying around for the students to pick up if we go in naked. Non-lethal weaponry, of course. There is a no killing and maiming rule, but incapacitation is completely okay."

Realization dawned on her. "Oh! You have an advantage by being able to find the weapons, while the others are left to searching for them! Nice job, smart one!"

"I know! I know! I'm awesome, aren't I?" He lapped up the praise like a lilpup with a bowl of water. "The problem is, it could be a kilometer in those 90 degrees." He spread his arm to emphasize.

"Why 90?" She asked.

"Because I went to the corner of the place, leaving me with less room to have to find a needle in a haystack."

"But why? I mean, why not just keep it on so that you could just listen to it the whole time?" She was truly confused at this part.

"Because every time it sends out a signal, it wastes a crap load of battery, around one eighth of it. Plus, the signal only stretches around a kilometer. Will here can sync the dinging to his memory of a clock and find the approximate distance from our current location. This means we only have eight chances to find the location of the weapons cache."

"Well, what are we waiting here for? Let's go!" She set off to run again, but Serj stopped her.

"We don't need to run. Best to take our time and try and find the cache. May I see your hat?" He asked out of the blue.

"What? No! This hat is important to me…" She remembered the day her grandfather gave her that hat.

"Please, I won't destroy the hat or anything." He seemed sincere.

She thought about it, before she took off her hat and handed it to him. "…Fine. But don't mess with it!"

"I won't mess with the hat…" He undid the ribbon that was tied around the center of the hat. "I just needed this."

He started to stretch the ribbon, and found it rather springy. He took a branch off one of the nearby trees. He broke the branch until he had s wishbone shape. He then tied the ribbon to the tow end of the branch until he had himself an unconventional slingshot. He tossed it to Katelyn, who fumbled it a bit, before grabbing it firmly in her hands.

"There you go. Now you have a weapon." He said nonchalantly.

She was surprised by the sudden gift. "I thought you said it was funny that I used a slingshot?"

He replied in a monotone voice. "I laughed because it was unconventional. I am a practical guy, so I can and will take every chance I have of winning."

'I hate this guy!' she thought to herself. 'He is just too confusing!'

"Well, off we go." He took off at a leisurely pace.

"Wait for me~~!" Will followed behind him.

'He may be confusing, but I have to admit, he is smart…' She thought. 'I'll follow him. For now.'

She noticed that they were already gone.

"Don't leave me behind!"

* * *

><p>chapter end! note that this is currently unbeta'd so...<p>

tell me what you think!

+2 oc's added to story!


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